Home
by AustenJane
Summary: A One-shot based off of Ryan Murphy's original ending for the series. "Rachel comes back to Ohio, fulfilled and yet not, and walks into Finn's glee club. 'What are you doing here' he would ask. 'I'm home,' she would reply.


Okay, so he and Rachel have been in this in between relationship/friendship/partnership for years now. _Years_. Not like one or two or even three, like for_ seven_ years he's been having a long distance non-relationship. On most days, it's fine. He's grown accustomed to living alone and making his own meals. He's an expert at laundry (who knew?) and he has the best dog in the world, a golden retriever named Clifford (Cliff for short.) It's just that on the days when teaching, Glee club, tutoring, and his band don't lull him into a sound sleep almost directly after dinner, he misses her. Misses her fiercely.

They visit each other pretty often, every month or so, and she makes sure to attend every school event and he's always first row at the openings and closings of her shows (and well, some in the middle, too.) She finally moved out of her loft with Kurt about three years back and owns this really nice but small apartment on the Upper West Side where he has a dresser of his belongings in her room. In turn, in his two bedroom apartment in Lima (not as nice as Rachel's, but certainly bigger) he has a dresser and part of his closet dedicated to her clothes and shoes, and the vanity in his bathroom is full of her makeup and hair products. It's like they're children of divorce. It's bizarre but somehow, it works.

This weekend, it's Finn's turn to visit New York. He grins as he zips up his carry-on bag (he doesn't really need anything else, duh—clothes at Rachel's) and puts the leash on Cliff as they head to the airport. He used to leave Cliff in Lima at his Mom's and Burt's house but shockingly, Rachel and the dog had fallen deeply, madly in love and Rachel insists that he comes to visit "Mommy." He doesn't say anything about the way her calling herself that makes his heart ache.

When he steps out of the terminal and into JFK he searches for a moment (it's kinda hard to spot a petite 5'3 brunette in the sea of people) but he sees a particularly sparkly sign being held up high in the air as the person holding it keeps jumping up to make it known. He squints to read the sign and it says in large felt letters on a blue glittery background FINN & CLIFF HUDSON 3 He laughs, because that is _so_ high school of her, but he can't stop his legs from literally charging towards her in anticipation. Cliff seems to be running at full force too, hell he can probably smell her. She _is_ his mom, after all. He drops his bag on the floor and orders Cliff to stay put as he embraces her and spins her around, kissing her neck. She's giggling and crying, and it's all very dramatic if you don't consider that they weren't able to see each other for an unprecedented three months because Rachel had gone on a mini-tour after her last show ended. He placed her down and she took his face in her hands, examining him for any changes since she last saw him. Brushing his cheek with her thumb she leaned in closer to whisper, "I've missed you _so_ much." He slouched down in order to rest his foreheads on Rachel's, "Baby, you have no idea." Breaking them from their reverie, Cliff pawed and cried at Rachel's thighs begging her to notice him. She chuckled and bent down, rubbing him behind his ears (he_ loved _that) and planting a big kiss on the top of his head. "Oh Cliffy, you know how much I've missed my baby!"

When they reach Rachel's apartment, they've begun to fall into the same gait they always do—literally meshing their two bodies into one. Either Finn's arm is linked behind her back and over her waist or she's linking her tiny arms with just one of his, they are somehow always touching. She fumbles for the key and pushes open her door and Finn is surprised to see a few cardboard boxes and masking tape in front hall. They let go of the leash and Cliff scampers in, no doubt finding his bed in the spare room. Rachel places her keys on the hook and walks ahead and Finn calls out curiously, "Still unpacking from the tour?" She seems to stop in place, and he swears he catches her shoulders sink. She shakes her head and turns around towards him, "No." She smiles sweetly and walks towards the kitchen mentioning something about having him try these amazing new tarts she got from Whole Foods. He ignores her, because he knows she's avoiding his question and walks closer to the boxes to inspect. He taps his foot against a sealed one, and it's full. He tries this with a few more and realizes that they're all marked on the back. This particular one says KITCHEN. These boxes were not from the tour. Rachel is moving and she didn't feel the need to tell him.

She saunters back into the living room with two small dishes holding berry tarts with whipped cream adorning them. "You're gunna love it!" She smiles and she sets her plate down on the coffee table. She keeps one dish in hand and stabs at it, bringing the fork to Finn's mouth to feed him. He stops her before she can though, grabbing her wrist. "When were you going to tell me you were moving?" She looks pitifully guilty and becomes red faced as she sets this plate down too. She smacks her hands against her head and sits down forcefully on the couch. "I was going to tell you, I just, I knew you'd be mad about it."

Finn, feigning ignorance, speaks in just too high of a voice, "Who said I was mad?"

She furrowed her brow, "Oh really, you're not?"

He takes his foot to a box and kicks it across the room and she gasps in disbelief, "I HAVE CHINA IN SOME OF THOSE BOXES!"

"Why didn't you tell me that you've signed yourself into another lease!" She was right, he was_ furious_.

"I knew you were going to react like this and it's exactly why I didn't want to tell you." She huffed and crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

"Because you know what this means, Rachel! It means another year! Another year in this—this limbo!" Cliff suddenly appeared, head downward, and he slunk against Rachel's legs. Like a little boy catching his parents in a fight, he was protecting his mother.

"What do you expect me to do, Finn? This is where I live! It's where I make my living. There is no other Broadway!"

At this, Finn went over to Rachel's marble mantle (he told you guys this apartment was nice) and took the two Tony's adorning it into his hands. He thrust them towards her for affect.

"You see these? You've lived Broadway, Rach. You can always come back they_ love_ you, you're already a twenty seven year old legend. What we haven't lived, haven't really lived, is _our_ life together."

She let out a strange gargle, and Finn saw the tears spring free from her eyes. "I'm sorry." She muttered. "I don't know what to do! I don't know how to fix this!" He kneeled before her, understanding her heavy words. They were married to two different places. Broadway was in New York. McKinley was in Ohio. In a bout of extreme longing, Finn had researched teaching jobs in New York and there just weren't _any_. He had to laugh at the universe sometimes.

"I'm sorry too." He sighed, rubbing her shoulders, and then making his way up and down her body, feeling her. He felt her responding to his touch and before it became almost too much he took her mouth in his and hovered over her on her antique couch. She was breathless, muttering I love yous between removing clothes and body kisses. They were both naked and Finn was more than ready to _really _feel her, but being on the couch felt wrong. He lifted her up, her legs wrapped around his hips, and he kissed her all the way into her bedroom. He laid her on the bed and told her how beautiful she was and how he wished they could do this together every night. As he pushed into her they both sighed as if they were somehow reentering their bodies.

He awoke to find Rachel brushing his hair with her hand, studying his face. He grew concerned when he saw that her face was glistening subtly with tears.

"Baby, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" He ran his fingers through her hair as he rubbed her lower back.

She smiled the saddest smile he'd ever seen and she whimpered, "We can't do this anymore, can we?"

Finn's heart nearly stopped in his chest. He had waited for this day, the day that one of them grew too weary of this seven year long game, that they'd put an end to it.

"It doesn't have be this way, Rach." He pleaded.

She shook her head in protest, "I can't do this to you anymore, Finn. It's unfair."

He kissed her full on the mouth and pulled back, "I would go through this torture every day if it means being with you even for only a few days out of the month."

"You deserve more. A life, a _present_ girlfriend, a house…kids."

"Rachel, I want all of that, but I don't want it with just anyone, I want it with you. _Only_ you."

She distanced herself from his body ever so slightly as she sighed, "I don't know when or _if_ I'll ever be ready for that. When I was younger, it all seemed all clear, but now, now I think about living in this little cottage with you and carrying your baby and Cliff running around in a backyard and it seems perfect, _so_ perfect, but then I find myself ruining it every time in a million different scenarios. What if I'm just too selfish?"

"You think about carrying my baby?" He asked, breathlessly, feeling closer to her than he ever had before.

"Finn, did you hear anything I said after that?" She implored.

He told her definitively, _no_, because once she said that nothing else mattered. He often dreamed of the same thing.

"Don't you see, Rach? You're letting your fear get in the way. If you had been this apprehensive, this anxious about Broadway it would've never happened. Sometimes you need to let fate step in."

"It hasn't yet." She rebutted. That was true, no teaching jobs in New York and an endless string of shows didn't prove that the universe was exactly playing along.

"Well, maybe it just wasn't the right time." He watched his hand as it traced the contours of her body and continued, "And this is the first time in like, what, five years that you haven't had a show lined up?"

She nodded, and he could tell she was a little embarrassed by that.

"Finn, that doesn't mean I can just pack up my life here."

"I know that, but maybe, I just wish something would show you that I can make your life just as fulfilling, in a different way."

"Baby, I don't doubt that for a second, please don't think that's it." She begged.

"Then what is it, Rach?"

"I just always thought that I'd be the happiest person on the planet once I won a Tony. Now I have _two _and I still don't feel complete. I don't want to resent leaving here for Lima when I still haven't figured that out."

The next morning, Finn nearly panicked when he didn't feel Rachel in his arms. Quickly realizing this was her apartment and it'd be pretty hard for her to abandon him, he relaxed. And oh yeah, he smelled pancakes and bacon. He pulled on his boxers and put on the super comfortable slippers she got for him so he wouldn't have cold feet on her hard wood floors. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching her work like a busy bee, setting the table, flipping the pancakes, pouring the juice, all like an expert as Cliff chomped away at his bowl.

She caught him in her peripheral vision and winked at him. Accepting the invitation, Finn came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her small waist. "You did all this for me?" He whispered huskily.

"Well, we certainly worked up an appetite last night, didn't we?" She bit back. He grinned, excitement coursing through his veins at the prospect of another round.

Cliff jumped up on one of the chairs and sat at the table expectantly.

Rachel pointed an accusatory finger at him, "Only two pieces of bacon, Mister! You're going to get a tummy ache!" Finn laughed at the way Rachel treated Cliff like a child and how much he loved it. Truly a mama's boy.

As he sat down at the table, he too was brought into Rachel's dream of the cottage, of them, of Cliff puttering around the house, of her belly round with his child, and perhaps a toddler at his feet. In the instant he imagined it he wanted it, more than anything he's ever wanted in his life. His heart began to yearn.

"Finn." Rachel called from across the table and he could see her staring, laughing at him.

He blushed slightly, "Sorry."

"Your pancakes are gunna get cold." She slid the maple syrup towards him, her wavy hair falling in front of her face.

"Let's just do it." Finn said hopefully as Rachel cut her food.

She didn't even look up, "Do what?"

"Get married. Marry me, Rach." His words were coated with absolute sincerity.

"Ha! Good one." She snorted as she bent down to feed Cliff some.

"I'm serious." He stared at her until she finally looked up to make eye contact. She saw the tears swimming in his eyes.

"Oh my God." She put a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp. He left his chair to kneel in front of her, pancakes still untouched.

He took her hand in his and kissed it.

"I don't have the ring on me right now." He shrugged his shoulder sheepishly.

"Finn…" She whispered, practically rendered speechless.

"It's in my pants in the bedroom, I'll be right back." He got up as swiftly as he could to retrieve the ring he made sure to always have with him whenever he was with Rachel.

He ran back towards the kitchen to find it empty.

"Rachel?" He called out. The apartment was tiny, there weren't too many places she could be.

He heard a whimper come from the spare room and immediately went to look for her. There, huddled over Cliff on his bed, was Rachel literally sobbing. But not like a good girl-is-so-excited cry, but more like an I'm-gunna-devastate-your-life kind of cry.

He stood there, above her, clutching the ring in his hand like a total idiot and she was coming undone below him.

"Rachel."

She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes, "Finn you need to leave."

"What?"

"You have to go back to Lima, I can't – we can't do this to each other anymore. I was right about what I said last night. I didn't want to be, for once I didn't want to be right."

"Baby, I don't understand."

"Finn, you just asked me to _marry_ you." She threw her hands up in the air for emphasis.

"Yes, and I mean it. I want nothing more in the world than for you to be my wife." He took her hand and she flinched back.

"You're being unreasonable and confusing and I think you need to go home so we can figure out our lives and where we go from here." She couldn't say the words and look at him, it hurt too much.

"So, not only are you denying my proposal, you're forcing me to leave." He said sternly, the ring in his hand practically drawing blood at this point.

"No—Well, yes. I think we just spent a lot of time apart and you got caught up in the moment—"

Finn cut her off, "Oh, so spending more time apart is going to help us figure out our relationship?! You're the one being unreasonable, Rachel!"

Cliff yowled; he hated it when he could feel the tension between Finn and Rachel.

"I'm going to need you to please stop raising your voice. This was never supposed to be a fight." She said, looking incredibly small.

"What were you expecting? Me happily agreeing to leave when I only just got here?" He was in complete disbelief with how this whole situation was playing out.

She sighed, clutching her forehead in her hand like she did when she had a migraine.

"You're right, I'm sorry. For the rest of the weekend you can stay here and I'll go to a hotel or something. Plane tickets are expensive you shouldn't have to deal with that." She left the spare room and went into hers to begin to pack her clothes.

"If you think I want to stay in this apartment one minute without you, you're insane. I'll leave." He was shaking; nauseas with the thought of Rachel would avoid him for months like she did a few years back.

She looked at him for a moment, some fleeting flickering feeling coming over her face. Before he could reach her to bring her close and plead with her, to make her feel him to understand just how much he loved her, she locked herself up in her bathroom. She didn't come out until he left.

It had been a rough two months since Finn last saw Rachel. He walked around like a freakin zombie, even the kids noticed he was just going through the motions. His hair was messy and he wore his clothes wrinkled and he even yelled at a student for the first time ever. He felt really bad about it and nearly cried begging for his forgiveness to which the student replied, "Mr. Hudson, chill. I kinda deserved it, I was being a jerk."

He was even drinking his coffee black, maybe he was a masochist, he wasn't sure. It had gotten so bad that Sue was beginning to worry about him.

"Hudson, you look like the crypt keeper crawled up your butt and made a home there. What the hell is going on with you?" She asked as he cringed while drinking the bitter coffee.

"Go away, Sue. I don't need to hear you mock me right now." She rolled her eyes and pulled out a seat.

"This is about Rachel Nose Berry isn't it?" Finn rolled his eyes and nodded, not in the mood to defend her honor in the moment.

"How long have you two been doing this for? Jesus, give it up!" She yelled and slammed her seat back under the table.

He went to check his phone, like he did every five minutes for the past seven weeks to check for any sign from her. But she hadn't contacted him once. Not even to answer his texts or his voicemails.

The time apart from Finn hadn't been any easier on Rachel. She wasn't able to get food down for the first two weeks following his departure and then two weeks after that the food she was able to get down she promptly threw back up.

It took Kurt to finally urge her to see a doctor.

"Rachel, you lost ten pounds last month alone. Now, another five?! You already are small to begin with this isn't good." She frowned at him as she stepped off the scale.

"I'm not doing it on purpose Kurt I'm just, I'm a complete mess." She cried into his shoulder and he held his friend tenderly.

"You need to talk to Finn. Please, before you melt away into practically nothing."

She eyed him, annoyed, "You know I can't do that."

It was Kurt's turn to be annoyed, "And why the hell not?"

"Because it'll only confuse him. I can't deal with all of this right now!" She made her way from the bathroom and into her bedroom, getting dressed for her doctor appointment.

"Can you ask the doctor to check for your brain while you're there? Listen, I have to go, but please call me when you get out." He kissed her on the head and left and she sighed in relief.

Rachel arrived at the office, feeling worse than she had to date. She was sweaty and pale and shaky, and the fact that she basically was unable to digest food wasn't helping any.

She sat down and signed all the papers and tapped away at an old magazine as she waited for her name to be called. She felt her phone vibrate and took it out of her pocket and swiped, not realizing the name on the screen.

"I just need you to know that I love you." It was from Finn. She began to cry like a completely unstable waif of a girl and of course this was when the nurse ushered her into an examination room.

Rachel explained the situation, the not being able to eat and then the not being able to keep it down, about the weight loss, and even her dizzy spells which she didn't even tell Kurt about.

Shockingly, the doctor didn't even seem concerned.

He checked her vitals, reflexes, the whole nine yards and sat down on his stool in front of her.

"When was the last time you got your period?" She scoffed, what was this, a lesson in sex ed.

"Oh I don't know about—about…" Truth was she legitimately could not remember the last time she had her period. How could that even be possible?

"Are you on birth control?" She nodded forcefully, _of course_ she was.

"Have you taken any antibiotics since your last period?"

Rachel thought back and remembered she was put on antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection just before Finn had arrived in New York. She told him this. He smiled knowingly.

He retrieved a small clear cup with a lid from the cabinet and set it on the examination table next to her.

"I'm going to need a urine sample."

She held onto the dirty, smooth pole on the subway car as she swayed with the trains jerky movements.

She was pregnant.

She was pregnant with Finn's baby. She kept repeating this in her head over and over so it would finally sink in, make some sort of sense.

She got off at her stop and was immediately bombarded by texts from Kurt and Blaine asking her how it went and if they put her on those weight gaining smoothies. She shut her phone off and walked to Duane Reade in a haze. She went to the back of the store and up to a pharmacist who smiled as she read her prescription.

"Congratulations. First baby?"

Rachel smiled at her and nodded, eyes welling up, "Yes." She took a deep breath and continued, "I just found out, I'm a little—overwhelmed."

The pharmacist didn't look phased, "It's a very emotional time, but also a happy one." With that she retreated back to get Rachel's pills ready and Rachel took a seat on one of the chairs.

Someone in the store had undoubtedly brought in a bag of McDonalds or some greasy smelling food and her stomach churned. She put her hand over her belly instinctively and leaned her head back against the wall. When the smell and the nausea eventually passed, she realized that her hand never left her stomach.

"You didn't like that smell, huh?" She whispered, looking down.

She began to cry, "Me either."

In that moment, it became real to Rachel.

And she would be lying if she said she wasn't head over heels in love with her little baby already.

"I don't know man, she hates me." Finn lamented over a beer at Puck's place. He studied the haphazardly drawn picture of a dog hanging on the refrigerator, no doubt done by Puck's four year old son, Henry.

Puck scratched his bald head and squinted, "Berry's crazy, you know that. She doesn't hate you she just doesn't know what the hell she wants. When Berry doesn't know what she wants she starts to unravel."

Henry came running into the room in his bulldozer slippers, tears streaming down his face.

Puck immediately went into Dad Mode, and picked him up and held him to his chest, "What's wrong, little bro?"

"Daddy I had a bad dream." Puck rubbed his back and assured him that everything would be okay. Ever since Puck split up with Henry's mom, the little boy was having a hard time adjusting. Puck eventually got him back to sleep and joined Finn in another beer.

"Sorry about that. He's learning to live this shitty divorce life." Puck took a long swig and Finn told him he was doing the best he could.

"You're lucky if you think about it, bro. Like if you and Rachel had had a kid and this shit gone on in the process, everything would've been a million times worse."

Finn didn't feel lucky. He wished he had a little boy with a mop of curly hair to tuck in at night, not that he didn't love his animal son, Cliff.

Finn just smiled unenthusiastically and agreed. He realized he was being way too quiet and he felt bad for Puck who was trying to carry on a decent conversation. He was just feeling so miserable.

Finn got a phone call from Kurt so he answered it in front of Puck, assuming it'd be a quick note about something he was doing wrong.

"Hey Dude, what's up?"

"We need to talk." His brother answered curtly.

"Uh, okay? Is something wrong?" Finn asked, not terribly concerned.

"Are you alone?" _Now_ he was concerned.

"I'm at Puck's can you please just tell me, you're killing me, man." Finn pleaded.

Kurt took a deep breath and audibly released, "Just promise me you'll sit down for this."

"I'm sitting, _please _Kurt." His stomach was doing a back flip.

"I don't even know how to say this but- oh God she's going to _skin me alive_."

He breathed, "Rachel's pregnant."

Finn actually dropped the phone to the floor, shattering it on Puck's kitchen tile, "FUCK!" He called out, the word substituting for everything he was feeling in the moment.

Kurt kept chirping through to see if Finn was still on the line.

He put the broken glass to his ear and gulped, "How—how long? How long has she known?"

Finn could feel Kurt's hesitation, "Finn what does that matter at this point… it's yours."

"Of course it's MINE! How long, Kurt?" He spit back, he never had any qualms about that.

"If it makes you feel any better she only told me a week ago. She's known for about two and a half weeks now." Finn felt the blood draining from his cheeks.

"She knew for over two weeks and didn't tell me? Kurt, was she EVER planning on telling me? Jesus Christ, was she going to keep me away from my kid?!"

"No, no, no! Finn please relax, _of course_ she was going to tell you. I just, I thought you deserved to know and she didn't know how or when to tell you so I kind of took it upon myself. If you care to know I _instantly_ regret it."

"I gotta come there, I have to see her. Is she okay?" His voice cracked on the last question.

"You cannot come here, Finn. I refuse to let you bombard her and make things even worse." He countered.

Finn asked again, "Is she okay, though?"

"She's pregnant, Finn. Lots of morning sickness, she's tired all the time, nothing too out of the ordinary."

He rested his face in his hand to hide his tears from Puck, "I should be there, taking care of her."

"I'm going to talk to her, don't worry. You'll figure this out okay? Listen I gotta go, she's coming over any minute. Please call me if you need anything."

"Hey Kurt." Rachel smiled weakly as she entered his and Blaine's apartment. She managed to leave her apartment after throwing her guts up all morning.

Blaine led her to the kitchen table where herbal tea and a scone were waiting for her, "Rach, you look really pale."

She smiled and shrugged, "This morning sickness is relentless."

Kurt took a seat next to her.

"There's something I need to tell you."

Rachel took a sip of the tea wearily.

"What?"

Kurt massaged his temples to prep himself, "I might have told Finn."

Rachel choked on the tea.

"Excuse me, I don't think I heard you right." She said, coughing.

"He needed to know, Rachel."

She pushed her seat back rapidly and made her way for the door, "You had no right!" She yelled as she slammed the door behind her.

Blaine put his hand on Kurt's shoulder, "Well, that went well."

Rachel's heels pounded the pavement as she tried to hail a taxi back to her apartment. To be honest, it wasn't that far of a walk but she was so damn tired, and her feet were swollen, and she was so upset that she felt like she could just keel over at any moment. She almost caught a taxi until some rude tourist ran ahead of her and jumped in. She was so on edge that she broke into a fit of tears. She truly had never felt more vulnerable.

Her phone began to ring and she answered it quickly, "I don't want to talk to you, Kurt! How could you?!" She shouted, tears falling freely.

"Rachel." The voice wasn't Kurt's. It was Finn's. She lost her breath.

"Are you okay? Please just tell me if you're okay."

She couldn't even stifle her sobs to pretend, damn hormones.

"No." She squeaked.

His breaths quickened, panicking, "Where are you?"

"I'm- I don't know, Finn. I can't breathe I'm so dizzy." So_ this_ was a panic attack.

"Baby, listen to me, stay right where you are okay? I'm going to call Kurt."

"I—I'm on Lex…just a few blocks down from th—the apartment."

"Great, baby. You're doing great. Stay put I'll be right back okay?"

"Okay." She whimpered.

When Kurt found her she was huddled against the steps of a brownstone, with her head tucked into her lap. Blaine lifted her up and carried her back to the apartment and they promptly called Finn who was practically about to burst through the phone.

"What happened?! Is she alright?!" Kurt could tell he had been crying.

"She's okay, Finn. Calm down. We put her down in Emily's bed. It's a good thing she's so small." He of course was talking about his daughter Emily's new big girl bed.

"We called our friend Gavin to come over, he's a PA and he's going to check her out, see if she needs medical attention." Finn seemed to relax at that.

"Is she awake? Can I talk to her?"

Kurt was going to protest but Blaine took the phone from him and told him of course he'd put her on.

"Rachel?"

She wasn't really sure if she was dreaming at this point, but all she knew was that she loved hearing his voice.

"Finn."

"Oh thank God, Rachel you had me so scared. I'm going out of my mind, here."

"We're okay, don't worry."

He laughed in spite of himself, his heart skipping a beat when she alluded to their baby.

"How's… how's the baby?"

He could hear the smile in her voice as she talked, "I heard his heartbeat yesterday."

He put his hand to the back of his head to try and steady his shaking limbs, "You did?"

"He's healthy and strong. He's kicking my butt but the doctor says that's a good sign." She laughed.

"I'm sorry you're so sick, Rach." He just wanted to hold her.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, I just didn't know how."

Finn shook his head although he couldn't see her, "I don't care about that anymore I just want to see you, to help take care of you."

"You have work, Finn; And the Glee club, and what about the band?" She reminded him, rubbing her stomach.

"I would drop all of it to be with you. I don't want to miss this, Rach. It's our _baby_."

"I'm taking good care of him, I promise." She looked down at her belly, noticing an ever so slight change.

"I know you are, honey. But even people as tough as you need help sometimes."

"Just let me come see you, I can leave after work." He pleaded.

"No, Finn. You have responsibilities you can't just drop."

"_You_ are my responsibility, _our child_ is my responsibility."

"We'll see each other soon, okay?" She swore.

He wasn't sure he believed her.

"Rachel, we should be doing this together. _We made him together_." He asserted.

"I have to go, the PA just got here. I'll text you to let you know how it goes, alright?" She moaned. She sat up too fast and became queasy.

"Jesus, Rachel, you sound awful."

"Finn, I'll call you later… I love you."

"I love you more."

"So, what's the verdict, Gavin?" Blaine asked as he sat next to a concerned Rachel, rubbing her back.

Gavin began packing away his tools, "It seems to me that Rachel is pretty dehydrated from all of the vomiting. If the severe vomiting continues, she'll have to be admitted so they can put her on fluids. You know, kind of like what happened to Kate Middleton."

Kurt nodded, completely understanding the reference.

"But she's okay for now?" Blaine inquired.

Gavin nodded. Rachel thanked him and he left.

Rachel sat on the bed fidgeting with her thumbs as Kurt stared at the wall.

"I'm not mad at you anymore." She offered.

He turned his head, "You're not?"

"No. You did the right thing—you were brave and I was being a coward." She decided.

Kurt placed his hand on her thigh and squeezed, "That's what best friends are for, huh?" She hugged him tightly.

"I need to go home, Kurt."

Kurt looked at her like she was crazy, "You just heard Gavin! You need to stay here so we can make sure you don't need to go to the hospital!"

She frowned, "No, I mean I need to go_ home_. To Lima."

Kurt's face was clouded with equal parts of joy and loss, "I was waiting for the day you'd realize that."

She wiped her cheeks of tears, "This baby, me not finding an apartment, no show in sight. It makes perfect sense. I feel like the puzzle has been connected. I can see the picture _so _clearly."

"And what's that picture look like?" Blaine asked, rubbing her knee.

"It looks like Finn."

Finn was on lunch break, staring goofily at the picture of the baby's sonogram on his phone that Rachel had sent him. Sure, it didn't really look like anything yet, but Rachel drew a little arrow pointing out their tiny little peanut and Finn found himself brushing his thumb over the spot.

"You better not be looking at nudies in my school, Hudson." Sue warned as she passed by, grabbing his sandwich and taking a bite. He didn't even care what she did, because he was pretty sure no one could break his high over getting a picture of his baby.

Finn wasn't feeling hungry with all the adrenaline pumping through him, so he decided to go back to the choir room and straighten things out for Glee club later, maybe work on his vocals or a little drumming as well.

Finn pushed open the door of the choir room and his heart nearly stopped at the sight before him. Rachel Berry was sitting in her usual Glee club seat as if it were 2012.

"Rachel? What are you doing here?" He asked breathlessly. It was a weekday! A Wednesday! She had yoga and vocal lessons on Wednesdays. Did something happen? Did something happen to the baby? He looked at her again, this time intently. She smiled at him widely and shrugged.

He didn't notice anything different, save for the ethereal glow surrounding her. She had never looked more beautiful. So it _was _true, they really did glow.

She stood up, walking towards him in this off white, empire waisted lace looking sundress that accentuated the tiny little bump she now had that only she and Finn could really notice. He gulped and felt his heart actually aching to reach out and feel his child. _Their_ child. They made a _baby_ together.

She smiled, halting just inches away from him. She pulled out a paper from her bag and laid it on the piano. Finn picked it up and mulled it over. It was her lease. Her lease that now had a big, bold, red stamp saying VOID. He could feel the cry of happiness bubbling in his chest.

Rachel took the lease from him and set it down, taking his hand in hers and placing it over her belly. Finn felt like he was on fire, the connection to her and the baby instant and indelible. They were his whole life. This was the culmination of everything.

She looked up at him shyly, just as she had when she was a sophomore, unsure of his feelings towards her. The look he returned screamed nothing other than reassurance; she was the _only_ woman in the world to him.

"I'm home." She replied. She let out an involuntary giggle of nervousness and wiped the tears that were now flowing freely. Finn, visibly crying as well, lifted her up into his arms and vowed to never let her go again.

And he didn't.


End file.
